by: Daniel Fox
Event: Herzog & de Meuron
Location: Columbia University, 05.13.08
Speaker: Jacques Herzog, Hon. FAIA — Principal, Herzog & de Meuron (Basel)
Organizer: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Hamburg’s density The Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg.
Courtesy elbphilharmonie.de
Whether grand urban visions, additions to historic structures, glass towers, museums, or sculpture pavilions, Herzog & de Meuron Architekten (HdeM) claim they never repeat themselves. “We don’t have a style… we always try to escape labels,” explains firm principal, Jacques Herzog, Hon. FAIA. As an architect, Herzog sees his role as an author who can make a difference; he “uses the discipline as a tool to understand the world.”
The recent conversation drifted among 10 projects at different phases of development, including some new projects, but the most socially aware is the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg. With no budget, no client, and no fundamental program, city administrators asked HdeM to “initiate the project” and “do something totally crazy.” Hamburg, a dense city, is difficult to expand. HdeM’s solution is to build on top of an existing industrial building located on the waterfront, allowing for a larger scale intervention. When authorities and citizens liked HdeM’s presentation, Herzog’s belief in work that is “not obvious” was refueled.
HdeM’s current work is about circulation and motion of the human body — beyond the vertical elevator, scissor stair, and straight corridor. A spiral public stair wraps along the interior perimeter of the curtain wall defining the building’s shape for the Roche Research and Development Center in Basel. In the Hong Kong Jockey Club, a vertical garden is integrated into a grid structure, and public programs in the shape of bubbles are suspended throughout. For the “Birds Nest” National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, the initial impetus of the design was a study of ancient Chinese pottery patterns. His work with artistic consultant Ai Weiwei on this project has led to other collaborative projects including a small concrete pavilion created from folding geometric patterns.
Herzog believes that the firm’s success is not due to so-called “signature” designs, but rather in how the buildings ultimately relate to the communities for which they are designed after their involvement is complete.
Harry Gaveras, AIA, is principal of Propylaea and co-chair of the AIANY Emerging NY Architects committee.